by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXIII.
AN EMBARRASSING SITUATION.
I was on my feet at daylight; but I found that Moses Brickland and DyerPerkins were up before me. They had opened up the fires, drawn theclinkers from the furnaces, and were now oiling the engine. They hadnearly steam enough to enable us to start up the river. Everythinglooked very quiet on board of the Islander, and there was no smokeissuing from her smoke-stack.
I jumped ashore, and the first thing I noticed was that the water wasmore than a foot higher than it was the night before. It seemed to methat there must be an inundation above us. I found no one stirring onboard of the consort, and I went on deck. I knocked at the door of thechief engineer. I told him I intended to get under way in the course offifteen minutes, and I did not care to leave the Islander behind. Hegot up at once, and called his starboard fireman.
Without standing on any ceremony, I walked into the captain'sstate-room, and told him I should be off in fifteen minutes. I found hehad given no orders about starting, but I assured him his engineer andfireman were attending to their duty. I bantered him a little, saying Idid not leave him behind for fear he would get into trouble. He wasgood-natured about it, and replied that he should sail in the companyof the Sylvania if possible. He admitted that we could outsail him, forhe had done his best to keep up with the Sylvania.
"How are your prisoners getting along?" I asked, for I had thought morethan once that they might escape while we were hauled up.
"They were all right last night when I turned in. I looked this placeover, and there is not more than half an acre on this bank that is notunder water," replied the captain. "They could not get away without aboat."
We went out on the deck, and found the two quarter-boats were hangingat the davits. Captain Cayo had charge of the prisoners, and thefore-cabin was locked every night before they went to their berths. Butthe door must have been opened to let the firemen out. I told thecaptain that he had better make sure they were safe before we left ourmoorings, as it would be easier to find them now than it would be afterwe got half way to New Orleans. He went below, and when he came up hewas assured they were on board.
I had avoided Nick Boomsby since the capture of the Islander, for Iknew he would beg me to get him out of his present trouble. I could notsee my way to do anything of the kind, and therefore I kept out of hisway. I remained on board of the steamer until the engineer reportedthat he had steam enough to go ahead, when I returned to the Sylvania.The fasts were cast off, and by five o'clock we were again stemming thetide of the mighty river. The current was even stronger than it hadbeen the day before. I told the engineer to let the steamer go at herordinary speed, and the Islander kept very near us.
The river was covered with lumber, shanties swept from theirresting-places, and other obstructions; but in the daytime we couldeasily avoid them. It was half-past seven before any of our passengerscame on deck. We were passing a little village that seemed to bestruggling for existence, for the high water was crowding hard upon itshouses and other buildings. By eleven o'clock we saw several villages,and some very handsome and romantic estates, though they were mostlycovered with water.
At noon the city was in plain sight, and soon we had New Orleans on oneside and Algiers on the other. The water was almost up to the top ofthe levees. The shores were crowded with steamboats andsailing-vessels. The former were entirely different from any I had everseen before, though for some time after I saw them every day. I had amap of New Orleans in a large atlas I kept in my room; and I haddecided to make a landing as near as I could to the foot of CanalStreet. I had read that this street had a green, with trees extendingthrough it.
I had no difficulty in identifying it when I came to it. At the foot ofit was the customhouse, said to be one of the largest public buildingsin the United States; and I had no difficulty in believing thestatement. In front of it was the broad levee where steamers landed,and such a forest of them I never saw before. They were packed in likesardines, and I could find no opening by which I could get to theshore.
I found that the decks of the steamers were common ground, and most ofthem could only be reached by passing over others. But near the levee Ifound a wharf, the lower end of which was under water, at which Iconcluded we could lie by paying wharfage. I ran the Sylvania in as faras I could and made fast. The Islander came up alongside of her, andwas secured to the bow and stern. My father and the Tiffanys concludedto take up their quarters at the St. Charles Hotel, so that they couldsee more of the city. I called a carriage for them; and then theShepards decided to follow their example, as they were tired of beingon the water for over a week.
As soon as they were gone we thought it was time to attend to thedisposition of the prisoners. My father had taken the money with him,but the hotel was not more than a quarter of a mile from the wharf. Isent Buck Lingley to assist Captain Cayo, and he was assigned to thecare of Nick Boomsby.
"Here we are," said Captain Blastblow, after everything had been put inorder on both vessels. "Do you expect to get away from here thissummer?"
"This summer! I expect to get away from here in two or three days," Ireplied, rather startled by the remark of the captain.
"I think not," he added, shaking his head ominously.
"Why not?"
"Are you a lawyer, Captain Alick?" demanded Captain Blastblow, with avery comical expression on his face.
"I am no lawyer, not even a sea-lawyer," I answered, wondering what hewas driving at.
"Neither am I; but it has occurred to me that we might be kept herelonger than we wanted to stay."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I was thinking just now that if we had let Cornwood and Boomsby escapefrom the steamer last night it would have saved us a world of trouble,"added Captain Blastblow, with a cunning leer and a wink.
"I don't understand you," I replied, satisfied by this time that he hadfound a mare's nest, or there was some kind of trouble ahead.
"We have two men in the fore-cabin who are charged with robbery."
"One of them is; the other is an accomplice after the fact," I replied.
"That sounds as though you had been a lawyer all your life, or at leastsince you put on jacket and trousers. An accomplice after the fact! Isuppose that he took part in the robbery after it was all done."
"It means that Cornwood took the money, knowing it was stolen, andaided and abetted Boomsby in escaping. In my opinion, he came down toKey West solely to get part of the money. But no matter for that; whatis to keep us here all summer?" I asked.
"I presume you mean to hand the robbers over to the police of NewOrleans?" queried Captain Blastblow.
"That is the only thing we can do, unless we carry them back toFlorida; and I don't care about going back there so soon."
"Just so. I don't know anything about law; but once I brought in afellow in my vessel who had committed a crime in another State. One ofthe passengers who knew all about the crime complained of the rascal,and he was hauled up before a court. It so happened that I knewsomething about the matter, and I was summoned as a witness, and theman was sent to jail. I could identify the man, but no one else could.They had to send south for a requisition from the Governor of Georgia.For one reason and another it took two weeks to get it, and I had tostay home from one trip to Savannah to appear as a witness."
"And you think we may be kept here as witnesses," I inquired, with nolittle anxiety.
"We are dead sure to be kept here till the Governor of Florida can sendan officer with a requisition for the prisoner. It will take at leastone week for that, and it may take two or three. Somebody must complainof Boomsby and Cornwood in Jacksonville, and then the governor must besure that it is all right. After all this the Governor of Louisianamust be sure that he is not sending a man off who is not likely to beguilty."
The situation looked rather trying to me, and I decided to go on shoreand have a talk with my father about it. As soon as I reached thecustomhouse I bought a Picayune, and the first thing
I saw in the paperwas "Further Details of the Great Storm." I found that the wholecountry above was inundated, and that it was expected the river wouldrise still higher. Many railroads could not send out trains, bridgeshad been carried away, and many lives had been lost. It was anappalling state of things. Vast numbers of men were employed instrengthening the levees above New Orleans. The Missouri River hadrisen higher than ever before, and whole villages had been carried awayin the North-western States.
I found my father in the reading-room of the St. Charles devouring thecontents of a newspaper. He began to give me the startlingintelligence, but I told him I had just read it. I then stated thesituation in relation to our two prisoners. He was alarmed at theprospect of a long delay, for the heat was intense in the city.Besides, we were not sure the city itself would not be inundated by therising waters.
My father was as much perplexed as I was. Our business was "Yachting onthe Mississippi," and the idea of being detained two or even threeweeks for the officials of two States to investigate a case that wasplain enough to us was hardly to be endured on the one hand, while wehad no desire to have a crime go unpunished on the other. We werecertainly in a dilemma. We decided to have a conference with the restof the party.
We found them in the ladies' parlor. Mrs. Shepard was fanning herselfvigorously, and I judged that she was in a very unhappy state of mind.I had seen very little of my passengers during the voyage fromJacksonville, for the heavy sea which constantly deluged the deck hadkept them in the cabin. I spoke to the colonel's wife, and hoped shewas very well.
"I am not well at all, Captain Alick," she replied. "My nerves areshaken all to pieces by the voyage from Jacksonville, and if my husbandowns the Islander for the next twenty years I shall never go to sea inher again."
"Indeed, is it so bad as that? But you have not been in the Islander inany very heavy weather," I added.
"I was in the Sylvania when I never expected to see land again; and Ishall never forget that terrible time after the shipwreck, for I neversuffered so much in one night, though I have crossed the Atlantic fourtimes. I am told that you managed the Sylvania very well, and I have nodoubt of it; but it was a terrible storm for such a small vessel. Lastnight I wished I was in the Sylvania, for I was very much alarmed whenwe were carried down the river by that terrible building."
"My wife don't feel safe in the city," added Colonel Shepard. "She isafraid we may be inundated here. She prefers to be on board of thesteamer, and wants to start up the river immediately."
"I do feel safer on the river than I do on shore," said Mrs. Shepard."I heard there was a case of yellow fever in the city."
"Impossible, so early in the season," replied her husband.
"At any rate, I don't want to stay here another day."
The lady was nervous, but she could not help it; and her health seemedto be falling back under the excitement of the recent trip.
Our conference resulted in a decision to sail up the river nextmorning, taking our prisoners with us. I went back to the wharf, andinformed Captain Blastblow of the wishes of the party.
Cornwood and Nick seemed to be very well satisfied with their conditionon board. But I wanted to see something of the city if the passengersdid not, and Washburn and I used up the afternoon in going to theprincipal points of interest. It would take a whole volume to give myimpressions of New Orleans; but that is no part of my present purpose.At nine o'clock the next morning our passengers came on board, and westarted up the river.
